First Impressions / Kaichou wa Maid-sama!

「碓氷拓海の秘密に迫る！」 (Usui Takumi no Himitsu ni Semaru!)
“Press For Usui Takumi’s Secret!”

Given the episode title and preview from last time, I admit I was totally led astray into thinking that Usui Takumi has some big secret lifestyle outside of his time at Seika and Maid Latte. However, despite how obvious they made Usui overhearing Sakura’s delusional impression of him, it was still a lot of fun watching her, Misaki, and Shizuko tail him for an entire day. Simply enough, it all started with Usui running into Misaki’s overly trusting mother Minako and helping her carry a bunch of apples home. Well, you can imagine Misaki’s surprise when she comes home to find Usui there snacking away on some rabbit-shaped apple wedges and chatting away with Suzuna and her mother. I must say I absolutely love the super-deformed scene of Misaki dragging Usui’s butt outside not too long after, but that really wasn’t any way to treat someone who just fixed up their floors for them. To top it off, Misaki even barred him from ever stepping foot on her premises again. Scary prez.

I’d almost like to believe that Usui was feeling a bit spiteful the next day about the poor guest treatment Misaki gave him, but in reality he just wanted to see exactly how interested she was in his personal life. Naturally, Misaki will tell anyone and everyone that she doesn’t give a damn about Takumi, so it was pretty funny to see how easily she got dragged into it when Sakura and Shizuko were outside of Maid Latte after following him all the way there. It was either doing that or hacking into the school’s student records to find out where he lives, so I guess this was the slightly less illegal approach in hindsight. The bigger problem though was that Sakura and Shizuko still don’t know about Misaki’s secret job at a maid cafe, which is why her reaction to hearing her store’s name over the phone was absolutely priceless. Luckily for her, Satsuki did end up giving her the day off, but I couldn’t help but feel sorry for our three idiots for breaking the bank with a big order to try and impress Misa-chan, only to find out about that afterward.

Inadvertent victims aside, I must say that Misaki Holmes with her tiny spectacles was pretty damn cute. The bigger surprise in the comedic department however turned out to be Shizuko, walking into high end sports clubs, boutiques, and restaurants and talking to the staff like she’s a regular. I wasn’t really expecting her straightforwardness to be as funny as it was, but kudos to Kobayashi Yuu for bringing it out so well. That said, I’m still wondering how Usui ended up walking out with an expensive suit if he was just leading everyone on a wild goose chase (and isn’t actually filthy rich), but “the” Kaichou wa Maid-sama turning point had to be Misaki’s reaction to the idea that Usui might be seeing another girl already. She may be completely brash when dealing with Takumi, but it was a clear sign of a bit of jealously and sadness that spoke volumes about how she feels deep down inside, whether she cares to admit it or not.

While it turned out that wasn’t the case, Misaki was evidently still troubled with the thought of Usui with another girl, which is why it was nice to see him lead them on a Good Samaritan chain of events to make her forget about it. It’s probably safe to assume that Usui took notice of her saddened expression then, whereas Misaki doesn’t have a clue about a lot of the subtle things he does for her. She still treats him as poorly as ever, plus tossed away a paper with his address on it without a second thought. Even though that was typical Misaki, I actually thought that was rather cold given Usui’s constant consideration of her feelings, so it was good to learn she did pick it back up later on. Granted, Usui didn’t really help the situation much by insisting that Misaki loves him without any concern about his family matters or past, but I still saw that as his way of getting her pissed off and preventing her from feeling depressed.

The next episode looks like it’s going to involve the school sports festival, which should be pretty awesome to see since Misaki and Usui aren’t in the same class. The bigger question mark right now is why Misaki’s dressed up as a samurai again. Shinsengumi?

 

Preview

28 Comments

    3. You mean there is something in this world that… *GASP!*…. DOESN’T LIKE USUI?!?! God forbid!

      I thought those kids playing in the park were a young Misaki and her sister!

      starss
      Reply

  10. Title is misleading as Usui himself leads us all on a goose chase, so that in the end, we’re no where close to figuring out Usui’s background. Who knows, perhaps Usui really is rich enough to be able to afford that suit. I’m just judging this based on his intellectual look when he wears his specs near the end, and the fact he can afford to live in an apartment, and apparently alone.

    Quite amazed no one bothered to call the cops with stalkers dressed in such a blatantly obvious way. lol (Though there’s a large chance Usui dissuaded the various proprietary owners from doing so beforehand. )

    Typo error in the sports club sign boards, it spelled “HIGHT CLASS SPORTS CLUB”. Yet another fine addition to the already impressive anime Engrish gallery. 🙂

    Kinny Riddle
    Reply

  11. For an episode with original content, it was pretty good. If not hilarious how they were walking around in those outfits in a sports club of all things. But I’m wondering how they’re going to squeeze in some of the characters in the opening they haven’t introduced yet.

    panda_general
    Reply

  13. Actually, I was pretty surprised by this because it’s the first time Usui’s shown any emotion other than teasing Misaki and being completely nonchalant about things. It kinda threw me off when he was reacting to Misaki’s mom.

    I admit he does look great in glasses. He looked pretty cute while being attacked by the cat too.

    I think Usui’s past might not be the happiest. Maybe he is from a rich family but they disowned him, or something.

    akani
    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *